Netarhat, me and running

"Had you been runner in school or college days?" My sports doctor asked me after half an hour complete body muscle inspection. I was there in his clinic for my recurring Achilles Tendonitis or heel pain or whatever you call. I said "Yes doctor!" , What was your best pace in 5K? He continued, I said 3:36 min/KM when i was in class 10th. Okk! So, your problem is not just physiological! Its psychological as well. You are carrying a burden of glorious past which is forcing you to push in present and making you injury prone! Forget your past first! Your muscle memories are gone with time due to lack of running and cherry on the cake is your luxurious footwear! "Doc, I was a barefoot runner then. I feel some memory should be there if not all" In reply he said "you have reached to a point where your muscle has become so weak that I can not even recommend you to go for a run with minimalist, forget barefoot!" I came back home with all the exercise and medicine prescription. It was the day when i started thinking why it happened! Was it football i used to play, was it my ignorance towards pain? Anyways gone are just gone. I was searching for a solution. Read many injury stories, contacted many persons online, tried to find a different way of training but one thing was very clear: i won't give-up on running!

Found MAF training very logical and started building a group of slow runners to keep myself motivated and progress with the help of others. Kept running slowly and still waiting when I would be able to race!

Injury which started in 2015, culminated in 2017 got a logic on 16th Nov 2019. The day which forced me to think differently, individualistically. 

I went to the same place in an alumni meet where i used to run in athletics and cross-country races in childhood "Netarhat School", Netarhat,  a hill-station in Jharkhand! My inner wish was to run on the same dirt track of 400m. One fine evening, i asked my kid if she could accompany me and she was as usual ready. Got the shorts and tees, laced up my vaporfly shoes and reached the main ground named 'oval'. We started together and paced my kid for a fast finish in 400m race :). 

After the run what i felt was game changer (should not be taken generic as every individual is different). Four important take-aways:

• I was not able to feel the ground at all. My childhood memory said I was able to feel every step of mine in the training run or in the race.
• I was not able to be air-borne which i was very much in child-hood.
• As soon as i started running there my neuromuscular system intimated me this is not the way you used to run. Driving force used to come from core, not from the leg.
• Upper body synchronization with lower body used to be way better! 

 Now the question was why? First answer came to my mind was highly cushioned vaporfly shoe, 2nd was missing strength in core as well as leg.

Then, I further digged out  how i used to train in the era of no internet, no information. Conclusion was 90% slow aerobic keeping mileage high! For 5K race or 8K cross-country i used to put such a huge mileage in training that race distance should look quite easy for me on race day (This was my childhood rationale and only strategy without any scientific logic. Now i understand how accurately i tackled!). 

So, after coming back home, I had more confidence in aerobic/MAF training. No question on training method for me at least as it had worked wonderfully on my body in past. But, problems were still infinite: Time, Environment (Polluted NCR), Age, Health, Strength, Metabolism and the biggest one was injury!

So, I segregated the problems in two parts:

• Injury
• Overall strength and synchronization

Solutions were:

• Cross-train more when Heel becomes problematic in training so that you don't loose the aerobic base!  
• Add those childhood exercises but go beyond them as body is no more same!
• Nutrition in my boarding school was class apart. Think that way! 
• Start running smaller distances close to barefoot (Have just ordered skinners. Thanks to Murali and prashanth) to feel the ground. Later, when injury improves and strength increases, transition to farther distances.
• Training method: No change! I used to do the same unknowingly. High volume in terms of time. No need to worry about the distance till injury improves. Go aerobic. Go slow. Be MAFia.
• Running form: Landing is better than child hood but air-borne capacity, core power usage capability and upper and lower body synch has been almost lost! Extract that from whereever its present in neuromuscular memory! If it can give signal on oval, it can give those signals anywhere. Its in my body!

Sometimes in life, you need to revisit! Revisit the memory, revisit the people, revisit the places!

Netarhat: